A simple data set on education and state-level (+ DC) turnout in the 2016 presidential election. This is inspired by what Pollock (2012) does in his book.
Format
A data frame with 51 observations on the following 13 variables.
yearthe year of the presidential election (2016)
statethe state abbreviation
regionthe state's Census region
divisionthe state's Census division
turnouthovoter turnout for the highest office as percent of voting-eligible population (VEP)
perhsedthe percentage of the state that completed high school
percoledthe percentage of the state that completed college
gdppercapan estimate of the state's GDP per capita
ssis it a ``swing state?''
trumpwdid Trump win the state?
trumpsharethe share of the vote Trump received
sunemprthe state-level unemployment rate entering Nov. 2016
sunempr12mdthe state-level unemployment rate (12-month difference) entering Nov. 2016. Higher values indicate the unemployment rate is increasing entering Nov. 2016 relative to what it was entering Nov. 2015.
gdpan estimate of the state's GDP
Details
Data were created in early 2017 for an upper-division course on quantitative methods. Educational attainment and division/region data come from the Census. Voter turnout/share data come from the Elections Project at George Mason University. GDP per capita estimates come from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Unemployment data come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and code to generate it was derived from a forthcoming publication of mine.